Cover Story
Welcome NRA visitors ?- Three things to know about guns in Louisville
The National Rifle Association arrives in Louisville this week for its multi-day annual meeting, but the cavalry’s already come, people. Maybe it never left. We live in a country — We’re No. 1! — in which guns in circulation exceed the population (more than 300 million served). We live in a state — Unbridled spirit!…
Visually Speaking: This week’s art news and events (6/24)
[The above image is by Irene Meyers who is teaching a felting class at the Little Loomhouse.] Art news Kaviar Forge & Gallery is sponsoring an award for forged metalworking at the Kentucky State Fair. Deadline for entries: July 1 (kystatefair.org). The Kentucky Foundation for Women is now scheduling art retreats at Hopscotch House. Individuals and…
Why you might want a gun: We went to Louisville’s NRA convention to talk with a few of the 80,000 attendees
I’ve never even so much as touched a gun in my entire 31 years on this planet. No interest. So naturally, I went to the 145th-annual National Rifle Association Annual Meeting this weekend in Louisville, an event three years older than the Kentucky Derby, in the interest of, for lack of a better term, discovery.…
Listen: Stream Jacob Holz’s new single “Hold Your Hand” before it’s released
“Hold Your Hand” — the new single from Dirt Cheap Disco singer Jacob Holz — is part vintage pop, part slick soul, part rock n roll energy, and it builds, falls and moves with the sort of agility that balances big ideas and raw catchiness. The track was produced by Joseph Auermann (Ari, To Die…
13 things to do for under $5 this week in Louisville (5/23)
Tuesday Shining like the Sun: Stories from the Heart of Louisville Frazier Museum $5; 6:30 p.m. You are invited to tell your story of respect, compassion, forgiveness or faith-in-action (themes of Thomas Merton’s famous epiphany in Louisville) at this Moth Storyslam-style event, which will be moderated by Louisville Public Media’s Executive Editor (and LEO alumnus) Stephen…
5 things to do in Louisville this weekend (5/20)
FRIDAY 5th Annual Old Louisville Springfest Old Louisville Free; Noon Stroll out of the office, and head over to Old Louisville for a good old-fashioned street festival. Springfest, which takes place between Oak Street and Magnolia Avenue, will have local vendors, associations, artists, a car show, food trucks and, best of all, bourbon slushies! SATURDAY…
Defining Five: Lyle Edward, Shelley Anderson, Jon Wettig, Michael C. Powell, Bobby Schraffenberger
Defining Five is a series at Haymarket Whiskey Bar, where, each month, five people from the Louisville music community pick five songs that have moved, inspired or impacted them and then play them during a DJ set. After each event, LEO Weekly will publish an interview with all five to get some context as to…
2016 Summer Guide: Festivals
MAY 27–29 — Kentucky Reggae Festival: Louiville Water Tower Park (3005 River Road), Fri. 5–11:30 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 2–11:30 p.m. Food by Jamaican Assoc. of Louisville, Caribbean Market with arts, crafts, jewelry, beads and more, extensive lineup of live reggae. JUNE 1 — Kentucky Shakespeare Festival’s “Two Gentlemen of Verona”: Central Park, 8 p.m.,…
2016 Summer Guide: Farmers Markets
Oh, Kale Yeah! BUTCHERTOWN / NULU Gray Street Farmers Market 400 E. Gray St. Thursdays, 10:30–2 p.m. May 19 – Oct. 27 Phoenix Hill NuLu Farmers Market 1007 E. Jefferson St., Fresh Start Growers Supply Tuesdays, 3–6 p.m. May 24 – Oct. 25 CRESCENT HILL Crescent Hill Farmers Market 201 S. Peterson Ave. Mondays, 7–10…
Bernie Sanders, another viewpoint
On Memorial Day weekend last year, a few compatriots and I, for the first time, put together a small booth and sign-up list to find volunteers for Kentucky for Bernie Sanders. People wished us well, but few had any faith in the movement. That movement has now led to this Democratic socialist challenging the darling…
Thorns & Roses: The best & worst (5/18)
Gov. Bevin’s potty mouth The Bevinator has told school districts they can ignore newly issued federal guidelines that instruct public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom matching their gender identity. “… The federal government has no authority to interfere in local school districts’ bathroom policies,” Bevin said in a statement, adding that…
killii killii, ‘Louisville is like the pot of musical gold’
In the best possible sense, killii killii is a hard band to pin down. Theirs is a long and storied heritage unique in that pastiche blend of styles that is part and parcel to the Louisville sound. A trio, the band has a wide dynamic range that manages that angular, minor key rage that seethed…
b-sides: Sierra Leone’s ?Refugee All-Stars
Living like a refugee isn’t easy, but it’s gotten easier for Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars. The music was passed around refugee camps during the country’s brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002. Today, it has reached international stages. And this Sunday, May 22, the All-Stars will bring their uplifting spiritual jams to Louisville’s Haymarket Whiskey…
Forest Fest
This Saturday sees the return of Forest Fest, an outdoor festival that features some of the best bluegrass and folk around. The festivities kick off at 11 a.m. and include performances by Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, The 23 String Band, Blue River, Ben Sollee, Blue Belles and Maiden Radio. Started in 2005, the festival takes…
‘In a Word,’ a fearless masterpiece
The premise is simple in Lauren Yee’s superb drama, “In a Word,” which opened last week at The Bard’s Town Theatre in a production directed by Amos Dreisbach and assistant director Lauren Bidwell. Two years have passed since Tristan, the adopted child of Fiona (Tamara Dearing) and Guy (Neil Mulac), disappeared from Fiona’s car after…
Jon Reep, ‘When you’re from Hickory, North Carolina …’
Jon Reep has come a long way since his first time in front of a captive audience, which ended with him drunk and in handcuffs while being escorted off the field at a Carolina Panthers game. “I was dancing, and the mascot invited me onto the field,” he said. “I was unfairly ejected.” Since then,…
‘White Sands,’ let’s just call it ?all magic
‘White Sands’ by Geoff Dyer (Pantheon; 242 pgs., $25) “What starts out as one thing can become something else even if nothing in it changes.” Sounds like one perspective on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, right? All the world beyond that thing may have changed, completely recasting how it can be viewed. Or the observer has…
The Hub is on a roll
Let’s get this right up front: I miss River City Tire. Nice folks selling good tires at fair prices, and whenever that stupid little flat-tire icon lit up on my dashboard, I could run by and get a free pressure check with a friendly smile. But River City Tire is gone. There’s no use crying…
Current mood: mezcal
We’re many days post Derby 2016, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve still got the Sunday Scaries. Whether you’re in the service industry and stacked up out-of-town cash all week, or you were lucky enough to partake in the decadence and depravity, the Kentucky Derby delirium tremens are known to linger for days,…
This week, our two contrary British chaps discuss Guy Fieri and the city’s NRA convention
Yet another new restaurant in Louisville, eh? If you’re talking about who and what I think you’re talking about, just stop — or I swear you’ll find out what your insides look like. Look, I’m not a huge fan of the stuff, but barbecue is arguably this country’s single most important contribution to the culinary…
Oh, Canada
Months ago, I said the outcome of the presidential race will turn on whether we are more afraid of Donald Trump, or we hate Hillary Clinton more (and of course, which team casts more votes). I found myself with the Ohio Valley crud over Derby, and I couldn’t help wonder whether I would get to…
Dear National Rifle Association:
Really wish you’d just go away. Not just leave town. Disappear. Like evaporate. In lieu of that, however … Welcome to Louisville — our compassionate, possibility city! I’ve been told the NRA does a lot of good: from proper training on how to use firearms to promoting safe practices and awareness. It’s too bad your…
Your Voice
On So we understand why they were built — Civil War monuments It is refreshing to see a fact-based article regarding this issue, rather than the rhetoric to which many people usually resort … —Philip Edwards So, the best light that can be shined upon (some of) the monument apologists is that they were low-information…
